The Idea of Democracy

More than 60 countries head to the polls in 2024. Hear global leaders Sam Pitroda and Ivo H. Daalder discuss democracy, design, policy, and how our systems serve our people. Sam Pitroda is former advisor to the Prime Minister of India and author of The Idea of Democracy (Penguin, 2024). Ivo H. Daalder is former ambassador to NATO and CEO of the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. Their conversation will be moderated by civic designer and ID alum Evan Chan (MDes 2019). A Q&A will follow the discussion.

This conversation will happen in the newest building on Illinois Tech's campus, the Kaplan Institute, which is home to the Institute of Design. In-person attendees can participate in the Q&A and post-event reception. The discussion will also be streamed. Register as a virtual attendee to receive the streaming link.

Participants

is an internationally respected development thinker, policymaker, inventor, and entrepreneur who has spent over 60 years in telecom development. Credited with having laid the foundation of India’s technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s, during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. In the mid-1990s, he founded Worldtel in London to help privatize telecom in developing countries. He invented the electronic diary and the mobile wallet which was acquired by MasterCard in 2013. From 2005 to 2014, Pitroda was chairman of the National Knowledge Commission and adviser to the Indian prime minister with a cabinet minister’s rank. He was also chairman of the National Innovation Council and Smart Grid Task Force, and played a key part in modernizing railways and developing public broadcast reforms. He is the founder, investor and chairman of six start-ups and five nonprofit foundations. Pitroda holds over 100 patents and twenty honorary PhDs, and has published and lectured extensively around the world. He is a member of the American Academy of Engineers. He is the author of The Idea of Democracy, Dreaming Big, and Redesign the World. 

is the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and host of . He served as U.S. Ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama and on the U.S. National Security Council under President Bill Clinton before joining the Council on Global Affairs as its president in 2013.

(MDes 2019) is an advocate for human-centered design and design for social good. He is passionate about fostering collaboration to design services and systems that work for everyone—particularly in government, whether through hosting conversations with community members, working alongside frontline government staff, or facilitating workshops between community members and government workers. 

About the Institute of Design (ID)

At the Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech, we look at the world in new ways to create the change we hope to see in it. Since our founding by Bauhaus émigré László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, we’ve continually turned design into a powerful tool anyone can use to transform the systems that shape our lives—from cities, education, and finance to food, healthcare, and technology.

We’re home to the only US design school devoted completely to graduate students, and the first to offer a PhD. By uniting science and rigor with creativity and rapid iteration, we’re recognized around the globe as pioneers in human-centered design, systems design, and other methods that apply design to the real world.

It’s through these unique approaches that students, communities, and organizations learn to observe the systems they’re surrounded by—and envision the new worlds they can build from them. Here, learners and leaders discover what design makes possible. How it enables us to adapt with the speed, scale, and complexity of life. To anticipate change and the impact of our actions. And, most importantly, to imagine—then create—brighter futures for us all. Learn more about ID at id.iit.edu.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Tellabs at the Kaplan Institute, 3137 South Federal Street, Chicago, United States